1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, systems, and products for throttling a point-to-point, serial input/output (‘I/O’) expansion subsystem within a computing system.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
In order to deliver high performance computers, computer architects must design powerful computer subsystems for utilizing processors, memory, expansion input/output devices, and so on. The drawback to these powerful computer subsystems is that their operation often produces excess thermal energy and vibrations that can damage the components of the computer. The excessive thermal energy and vibrations are often detected as they raise the temperature and acoustic level in the environment external to the computing system. Moreover, excessive thermal energy and vibrations increase the computer's power consumption.